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--NEW COLLEGE NEWS RELEASE NEW COLLEGE, SARASOTA, FLORIDA FURMAN C. ARTHUR INFORMATION FOR RELEASE SUNDAY, JANUARY 12, Succeeding generations of young scholars will perpetuate the memory of a gifted Sarasota youth who succumbed last December to leukemia. Friends and staff members of New College have created the Peter MacNeil Scholarship Fund at the college which is scheduled to be opened next Fall. "We feel he would have wanted this," a talented young secretary who has donated the proceeds of her public recitals explains. She said the Rollins College scholarship student "might have liked the idea of another young person completing college through a scholarship in his memory." She and some 26 other staff members and friends of the college have pooled their gifts so that over $3,000 is now in the Peter MacNeil Scholarship Fund. New College is a non-sectarian, privately endowed college which will offer a unique liberal arts education to highly motivated and gifted students like Peter MacNeil. The Charter Class will number some 100 young men and women and will have such distinguished teachers as historian Arnold J. Toynbee on their faculty. Dr. George F. Baughman, president of New College, has informed Dr. and Mrs. John W. MacNeil, pastor of the First Congregational Church and father of Peter, of the establishment of the scholarship in these words: "We at New College have been deeply moved by the tragic and early passing of your dear son Peter. The noble manner in which he endured his long suffering, yet constantly retaining concern for those around him, and his enduring interest in education and in the finer aspects of life, will forever be an inspiration to us. It was in this spirit that the staff of New College unanimously chose to perpetuate (more)

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NEW COLLEGE -2 Peter MacNeil story "his memory through personal contributions in the hope that this fund will ultimately become an endowed scholarship to be known as the PETER MacNEIL SCHOLARSHIP FUND at New College. "The fund has now reached the $3,000 mark. It is our hope that this may inspire others to add to its growth and to provide an endowment of not less than $100,000 for a full scholarship to go to a member of our Charter Class." Peter MacNeil Scholarship recipients will have a distinguished model to emulate. The scholarship namesake was a clean-cut youth -six feet, two inches in height, an enthusiastic water skier, honor student of Sarasota High School, an outstanding dramatic actor who played the title roles of both Hamlet and Romeo. His dramatic troupe won state honors during 1961 and 1962 and were praised by noted playwright Joseph C. Hayes. He was a Sunday School teacher, a member of the Chancel Choir and was president of the Youth Fellowship. Described by Dr. Baughman as a young man who was "symbolic of the outstanding scholarship student we envision for New College, '1 Peter was awarded an achievement scholarship to Rollins College, and there was a member of the chapel choir, the Bach Festival Chorus and the Rollins Drama Group. He planned a career in the ministry and had already been approved as a candidate by the United Church. Although his life spanned scarcely 19 years, Peter MacNeil left many other accomplishments. His brother Paul, 15, has assembled a collection of his unpublished poems for his parents. And Dr. MacNeil used Peter's thoughtful essay on Eternal Life as the text for his Christmas sermon, and Peter's Prayer for Young People in his New Year's day message from the pulpit. Dr. MacNeil describes Peter's last year in words that are an eloquent eulogy: "We asked ""Tor a pnysical miracle. We were given a spiritual miracle. During all of his long months of suffering, Peter was never bitter, rebellious or resentful. He remained a considerate and dutiful son, steadfast in his faith and life, and in prayer." ##